What Happens After Death? (2)

The Wondrous Gift of Life

To understand death, we must first consider life. Where did life come from? Why are we here? What is our purpose? Are human beings any different from other living things?

The answers are crucial if we are to grasp the big picture.

To understand death, we need to first consider: What is life? The world's greatest thinkers, including the Greek philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, have struggled with this question. Scientists and theologians have dedicated lifetimes to trying to find the keys that unlock the mystery of human existence.

But only the One who created life in the first place can supply the answers we so desperately need. We must look at the very beginning of life to understand it.

Religion, philosophy and science acknowledge that physical life had a beginning. Some believe that life evolved over millennia. But the Bible reveals a God who boldly claims that He is the Creator of all life and that He created human life for a tremendous purpose. Through His Word, God gives us His answers to life's most important questions.

Why human beings differ from animals

Much of humanity is familiar with the account in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.Genesis simply means "beginning" or "origin." In Genesis God reveals the origin of the forms of life we find on planet earth.

Notice what God says about human life in Genesis:1:26: "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (emphasis added throughout). God intended that other forms of life be subject to man as part of an extraordinary higher purpose for man.

Only mankind was created in God's very image— a designation that applies to no other part of His creation. Human beings are unique among God's physical creation in their godlike abilities to make decisions, plan and create. Far beyond providing us with animal-like instinct, God created within us intellect, self-awareness, the capacity to learn, reason, communicate and produce.

Human brains are physically quite similar to some animal brains, yet people have vastly higher abilities. The Bible reveals that the difference between the human mind and the animal brain is the spiritual essence God included in the makeup of human beings: "For what man knows the things of a man except [by] the spirit of the man which is in him?" (1 Corinthians:2:11; see also Job:32:8; Zechariah:12:1).

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all.